There is a growing concern for a safety of infants and young children. Particularly, the concern is for children who have not yet reached an age at which they may be reasoned with and instructed as to dangers of household electricity. Such children may typically range in age from that of a toddler up to school aged children who have yet to learn discipline or have yet to reach the age at which they may be spoken to about dangers of certain actions which they might undertake.
Almost any home where such children live or are expected to visit, will possibly have covers placed over any unused wall sockets so as to preclude prying fingers or child-wielded objects from being inserted into the electrical wall sockets. When these covers are in place on unused wall sockets, the danger to a toddler is greatly reduced as the wall socket is not accessible and the covers are difficult to remove. When, however, a household appliance such as a lamp, is plugged into a wall socket, a completely different danger exists. In this instance, the child may be enticed to remove and reinsert the plug into the wall socket. This exposes them to the risk of contacting the prongs of the electrical plug while they are electrified, i.e., while between 110 and 130 volts is imposed across the prongs. If the prongs are inadvertently contacted by the child, there is a high risk of electric shock to the child.
Devices have been proposed in the prior art for minimizing such a risk. One such device is a safety device on a transformer for an electrical appliance. The transformer has electrical prongs projecting outwardly therefrom and a cavity is formed in a housing of the transformer around an area from which the prongs project. An insulator is disposed within the cavity. The insulator is collapsible when the blades are inserted into a wall socket and expandable when the blades are removed from the wall socket. The insulator is in the form of a bellows-like structure that has convoluted and compressible walls.
It would desirable to produce an electrical safety device for use with a standard electrical plug, which minimizes inadvertent contact with electrified prongs of the electrical plug as well as electrified prongs of the electrical safety device.